Henri Wallon (historian)

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Henri Wallon

Henri-Alexandre Wallon (born December 23, 1812 in Valenciennes , † November 13, 1904 in Paris ) was a French historian and statesman. His significant involvement in the formation of the Third Republic earned him the name "Father of the Republic". He is the grandfather of the psychologist and politician Henri Wallon .

Life

Wallon, who initially devoted himself to a literary career, became a professor at the École normal supérieure under the auspices of Guizot in 1840 . He owed his position at the Faculté des Lettres (Faculty of Humanities based in the Sorbonne ) in 1846. His work on the slave question in the French colonies (1847) and in antiquity (1848, 1879) were decisive for his after During the February Revolution (1848), he was accepted into a commission for the regulation of labor in the colonial properties of France. In November 1849 he was elected as a representative of Guadeloupe in the Assemblée nationale législative (legislative national assembly) of the Second Republic and asked to be allowed to use the former slave Luisy Mathieu as a deputy. In 1850 he resigned after publicly disapproving of the measures adopted by the majority of the congregation to restrict the right to vote. In the same year he was accepted into the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres , which in 1873 elected him to be its secretary for life.

During the Second Empire Wallon withdrew from political life and devoted himself to teaching as a history professor and his historical writings, among which the biography of Richard II of England (1864) should be emphasized. Although he was a Republican throughout his life, a clear spiritual sentiment can be seen in his publications from that period, for example in his Jeanne d'Arc (1860, second edition 1875). Other of his writings are still standard works of hagiography today , including La vie de Norte Seigneur Jesus (1865), an answer to Ernest Renan's Vie de Jesus , and Saint Louis et son temps (1871).

When Wallon turned to politics again after the Franco-Prussian War , he was re-elected as representative of the North Department in 1871 and again took an active part in the meetings of the National Assembly. He went down in history with his proposal to establish a Third Republic with a president elected for a term of seven years and entitled to re-election. This proposal was passed by the assembly on January 30, 1875, after heated debates. "Ma proposition," he announced, "ne proclame pas la République, elle la fait." (freely translated My proposal is not the one who proclaims the republic, but the one who creates it! )

After the establishment of the Third Republic, Wallon, as Minister of Education, brought about many reforms. However, the majority of the members of the Chamber of Deputies assessed his stance as too conservative, whereupon Wallon retired in May 1876 and returned to his historical studies. He wrote another four writings, which are less important for their content than for the documents they contain:

  • La Terreur (1873)
  • Histoire du tribunal révolutionnaire de Paris avec le journal de ses actes (6 vols., 1880–1882)
  • La Revolution du 31 mai et le fédéralisme en 1793 (2 vols., 1886)
  • Les Représentants du peuple en mission et la justice révolutionnaire dans les départements (5 vols., 1880–1890).

In addition to these he published articles in the Journal des savants and wrote for many years on the history of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres , for which he collected and arranged material.

Henri Wallon died in Paris in 1904 at the age of 91. He rests there in the Cimetière du Montparnasse cemetery .

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personal data
SURNAME Wallon, Henri
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wallon, Henri-Alexandre (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French historian and statesman
DATE OF BIRTH December 23, 1812
PLACE OF BIRTH Valenciennes , France
DATE OF DEATH November 13, 1904
Place of death Paris